Power Glitch
by GangGreenGhost
Summary: A young man working to make ends meet for him and his sister is zapped into Game Central Station. Him and the game characters have to find a way to bring him back to the real world before his aunt pulls the plug. But a few of the villains have other plans for his body. Can Dusty save himself or will the villains get to him first?


Dustin Paine was your ordinary sixteen year old boy with a starter job at the arcade maintaining the games by cleaning them and unplugging them when the arcade closed, plugging them back in when it opened. His shaggy dirty blonde hair and grey eyes matched his pale skin and tired bags under his eyes. He was the full-time worker, having to drop out of school to care for his little sister after the death of their mother and father earlier in the year due to a car accident. Sure the school district cut him a deal but it still had him working like a dog from open to close everyday just to make ends meet. The boss came in and looked him over, saying "Go home Dusty…you look terrible".

"But what about-" Dusty said, but he was stopped by the old man.

"I'll fill out a time sheet so you get paid for a full days work…all you have to do is sign here…" he slid the paper to Dusty and the young man signed where indicated.

"Thanks boss…you know, my sister's school said that if I work full-time someplace in town that they'll reduce the tuition to $100 a month. But that's barely enough to leave us with rent, food and heating…"

The old man gave him a sad smile, knowing full well that the boy couldn't afford to show exhaustion or sadness in front of his ten year old sister. "You know…you can always bring her here before and after school if you can't afford a baby sitter…" he hated seeing Dusty work his butt off for next to nothing so sometimes he doctored the lad's time sheets so he could get some rest here and there.

"Thanks, but no thanks sir" he let out a weak laugh "Missy would kill me if she even thought of a baby sitter would be watching her. She cooks our meals and makes my lunch when she gets home…" he hated the thought of leaving her alone, but she wouldn't have it any other way. She was growing up now and more than capable of caring for herself and her brother. "Missy" being his pet name for his sister Melissa ever since she was a baby.

"You sure kid? I mean you still live in the same house you and your parents did…don't the memories come back and make you sad?"

"Of course they do, sir but we can't just leave all our happy memories too" the responsibility of providing for his sister was his and his alone-not even his aunt who can't keep her nose out of their business. His Aunt Gertrude was rich-her late husband left her with a hefty amount of life insurance money when he died, and since then she has been trying to give his parents money to help them move to a better part of the neighborhood but they insisted that they were well enough off. Sure they didn't have the best of everything, but it sufficed. Now that his parents were gone, she swooped in like a vulture to try and adopt them, but with her prim and proper way of doing things she was smothering the kids.

"Has that crazy aunt of yours let up any?" the old man asked.

"A little…but that's only because the phone company shut off our service. Now she stops by at least every week to try and give us money…" Dustin nodded.

"And you don't wanna take it because it's a pride thing?"

"Dead center" the boy smiled and sighed "I don't want any money that I don't earn myself". The old man just smiled at him, admiring his conviction. This boy may be young, but he makes up for his inexperience with his work ethic and strong personality.

"Go on home, Dusty" the old man said "I can handle things here" the arcade wasn't the top of the line one, but it did have some classic games- Fix It Felix Jr, Sugar Rush and Hero's Honor. The old man rarely held special events here so he didn't have to deal with all the rush of juvenile delinquents that try to knock down his consoles.

Then a minute later a patron came up and informed the management that one of the games was glitching. The old man took out a few quarters from the till and asked Dusty "Can you check that out before you leave?"

"Sure boss…show me the game please?" he asked the boy who was no less than two years younger than him and the lad showed him the game "What's wrong with it?"

"I just eats my money. I put in two quarters but it just makes a really annoying noise and crashes" the other boy explained. Dusty gave him fifty cents and inspected the machine.

"Here's the problem!" he laughed "It's just not plugged in all the way!" he unplugged the machine then plugged it back in. That's when the real problem started-a surge of electricity came through the wire and his mind went blank. The last thing he heard was the horrified screams of the other guests and the old man calling his name.

Meanwhile in the game world, a figure began to appear with a staticy sound right in the middle of Game Central Station, where all the characters of every game in the arcade were gathered in a state of emergency. At the epicenter of the commotion stood Ralph from Fix It Felix and he was shielding Vanellope Von Schweets from the tiny sparks of electricity. The dirty blonde haired boy with tired eyes looked up and thought he was dreaming.

"Hey…ain't that the kid who works at the arcade all the time?" Calhoon asked her husband Felix. The small of stature repair man looked the young man up and down.

"Yes, that's him alright…but what are you doing in here?" the short man asked the boy.

"I don't know…I don't even know what happened! Am I dreaming?!" Dusty was starting to get scared and he looked around at the familiar faces of his favorite characters. They all looked concerned as some of the late comers from Tapper's came in to explain the situation- one of the games was not plugged all the way and when Dusty went to plug it back in, a part of the wire was frayed and he had a mild electric shock. His body was being taken away in an ambulance while his mind was here in Game Central Station.

Then the crowd separated into two sides and a few doctors from Trauma Center came forward to examine him. "I think the shock of electricity was so powerful that his mind was separated from his body…so that means he's pretty much brain dead in the real world unless somehow he can get another shock of equal voltage…"

"But how did his mind get converted into the required data that we can see and hear him?"

"Perhaps its his sub conscience trying to keep his brain alive…"

Dusty was getting frustrated and he dropped his politeness and said "Is there a way out of this place? Like back to the real world?!"

"Easy kid!" Calhoon said "What's your hurry? I thought it was any boy's dream to be surrounded by all his favorite female characters from his favorite games!"

"But I don't want that! I want to get back to my sister!" he said loudly, though not yelling.

Felix stepped in and in an even tone said "Please don't raise your voice to my wife. I will defend her honor if need be! "

"I'm sorry, but I can't help it…everything I've ever known has been turned upside down in an instant and everything in my life will turn to crap."

Felix sighed and said "It's okay kid…all electric lines in a city go to the power company and if we can get you to the outlet that leads out of the building and to the outlet that leads to whatever hospital they put you in, then we might be able to get your mind back into your body!"

The doctors looked at each other and consulted one another with agreement "That may work and be the best course of action…but how are we gonna find out where they've taken him?"

"The phone lines are connected to the power servers, along with the internet" Dusty said calming himself down "phones have internet access now so we may be able to hack one and do an internet search of recent news" Calhoon had to smile at this kid. It seems like he wasn't the normal brat like the other kids. He contributed to his own dilemma ways he can work himself out of it and his ideas did seem valid arguments.

One of the doctors contributed with "We must be careful…if a living human can come into our world, then perhaps we can manifest ourselves in his world too…"

In the darkest corner of the station, Turbo was listening to the entire commotion and smiled. It seemed like there was a vessel just waiting for a hostile takeover and a small chuckle came from his lips. Of course he kept glitching from his King Candy image to his real form. This too would have to be a waiting game, the information would come in due time but he was a patient string of corrupted data. Good things always come to those who can wait.


End file.
